Rishi Sunak backs Kathleen Stock after trans uproar over Oxford invite

Rishi Sunak has said that Prof Kathleen Stock has a right to be heard as he urged students to engage with the feminist academic's views even if they disagree with her.

Prof Stock, who believes trans women are not women, is set to take part in an event at the Oxford Union on Tuesday evening, but her invitation sparked a backlash from trans activists.

In a rare intervention into a campus free speech row, the Prime Minister told The Telegraph that the vocal few must not be allowed to shut down debate and that universities must support, not stifle, contentious discussion.

He said: “A free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others.

“University should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled. We mustn’t allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussion. Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union should stand.

“Agree or disagree with her, Professor Stock is an important figure in this argument. Students should be allowed to hear and debate her views.”

He added: “A tolerant society is one which allows us to understand those we disagree with, and nowhere is that more important than within our great universities.”

Freedom of speech under threat

The row which has engulfed Oxford University has become emblematic of the wider debate over freedom of speech in society

In the coming days, the Prime Minister is set to unveil Prof Arif Ahmed of Cambridge University as the director of freedom of speech and academic freedom, charged with cracking down on the no-platforming of academics.

It is understood security measures will be in place for Prof Stock’s appearance, as protests have been planned.

The Union is a private members' club that University of Oxford students and others pay to join. It is independent of the university and the student union. It said its attendees will have an "opportunity to respectfully engage and challenge" Prof Stock's views at the event, as well as being able to ask questions anonymously.

More than 40 academics, including Prof Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, and Prof Nigel Biggar, the theologian, wrote a letter to The Telegraph earlier this month in which they supported Prof Stock’s appearance.

Oxford University later intervened to protect free speech. The university’s student union had said it would ban the Oxford Union from its freshers’ fair, accusing the historic debating society of having a “toxic culture of bullying and harassment”.

However, the student union reversed its position after the university reminded its trustees of its free speech policy.

In a letter to The Telegraph, one of the university's pro-vice-chancellors told students they must be prepared to “encounter and confront difficult views, including ones they find unsettling, extreme or even offensive”.

Later, more than a hundred Oxford students declared in a letter that those at the university who wished to silence free speech “do not speak for us”.

At the weekend, a separate group of Oxford academics and staff signed a letter that said opposing Prof Stock’s visit was not a free speech issue, claiming revoking an invite “is not preventing them from speaking”.

Upset caused on both sides

On Monday, Prof Stock said she was a “moderate” and that it was her trans activist opponents who were extreme for demanding the event be cancelled.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said: “We have to have freedom of speech, we have to be able to talk about this.

“Of course I am causing upset. The position I am fighting against causes a lot of upset: you’ve got male rapists in female prisons: that causes a lot of upset.

“You’ve got children transitioning, doing things to their bodies that they can’t take back: that causes upset to their parents. You’ve got huge numbers of women unable to talk about sex-based rights in their workplaces because they feel stifled: that causes upset.”

She remained "committed to keeping talking" about gender identities, saying: “We have to talk about the things that cause upset because they are precisely the points at which pressure groups and activists will try and steer the conversation in a particular direction.”

Gender distinctions 'around for centuries'

During the interview, Ed Balls, a former Labour minister and one of the presenters, set out a scenario where he asked her: "Why do you want to tell a vulnerable young 21-year-old that they can't be a woman because you decided they're not allowed to be one"?

Prof Stock said: "The world decided it the way evolution decided it. It's crazy to think that just because I'm making some category distinctions that have been around for centuries, and in every natural language exists, I'm deciding who gets to be a woman. I'm not, I'm describing the world I see.

“I think we need words to describe the differences between males and females because they matter socially."

Prof Stock will also appear on a documentary, Gender Wars, set to air on Channel 4 on Tuesday at 10pm.

Mr Sunak's comments come amid a wider debate in society about trans issues.

Last week the Telegraph revealed that the former chief executive of trans charity Mermaids referred children to the NHS Tavistock gender clinic even though their GP had repeatedly refused to do so and despite the fact she had no known medical training.

And British Cycling banned transwomen from taking part in competitive female events, prompting one trans cyclist to accuse the body of “furthering a genocide”.

At the weekend, police made three arrests in Hyde Park after trans activists clashed with the organisers of a gender-critical event.